The Family Idiot: Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1857, Volume 4 (Volume 4) - Hardcover

Sartre, Jean-Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226735184 ISBN 13: 9780226735184

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1991

Synopsis

Seen by many as the culmination of Sartre's thought and project, and viewed by Sartre himself as an attempt to answer the question, "What, at this point in time, can we know about a man?" this monumental work continues to perplex its fascinated critics and admirers, who have argued about its precise nature. However, as reviews of the first volume in this translation agreed, whatever The Family Idiot may be called—"a dialectic" (Fredric Jameson, New York Times Book Review); "biography, philosophy, or politics? Surely . . . all of these together" (Renee Winegarten, Commentary); "a new form of fiction?" (Victor Brombert, Times Literary Supplement); or simply, "mad, of course" (Julian Barnes, London Review of Books)—its prominent place in intellectual history is indisputable.

Volume 4 consists of part three, books one and two, of the original French work. This volume, the fourth in a projected five-volume English-language edition, includes Sartre's discussion of the onset of Flaubert's illness, or neurosis, in 1844, and a significant reading of his L'Education sentimentale.

Sartre's approach to his complex subject, whether jaunty or judicious, psychoanalytic or political, is captured in all of its rich variety in Carol Cosman's translation.

About this title

About the Author:

Carol Cosman is coeditor of The Other Voice and The Penguin Book of Women Poets. Her translations include The Old and the New: From Don Quixote to Kafka, by Marthe Robert.

Language Notes:

Text: English, French (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0226735184
• ISBN 13: 9780226735184
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 366